The Pressure Cooker Diaries

For this recent story, I wrote about how top chefs are embracing a technology straight out of Grandma’s pantry: the pressure cooker. They use them to infuse flavors of lemon verbena into plums, to turn veal shanks tender and silky and to make ultra-rich stocks.

Intrigued, I went out and bought a pressure cooker. My goal: To see if the pressure cooker could make it possible to put hearty braises, whole grains, and vegetables like artichokes and beets on the table on weeknights. Images of chicken exploding onto the ceiling hovered in the back of my mind.

Undeterred, however, I began experimenting, and kept this photographic diary of my exploits.

A flurry of pressure cooker cookbooks have been published in recent years. Lorna Sass’ “Cooking Under Pressure” includes handy tables of cooking times.

This baby is something of a behemoth. Although you want a big pressure cooker so you can use it for stocks and braises (you can only fill it up to ¾ full), storing such a bit pot can be a problem. Mine sits on the stovetop all the time.

To get started, I decide to cook something simple that my husband adores but that I hardly ever make because they take so long: Beets. I scrub the beets well, then place them in the cooker and add about a half-cup of water.

Pressure cookers require a minimum amount of liquid to work safely. The user manual that comes with the equipment will provide the proper guidelines.

I’m apprehensive as I click the lid into place and turn on the heat. People all over the world use pressure cookers safely, so there’s no reason to be a wimp, I tell myself (in a tiny, nervous voice)….

After a few minutes, I start to hear some hissing and gurgling, and I see the pressure gauge start to gradually creep up. This is it! I am in business! I am pressure cooking!

Two red lines indicates that high pressure has been achieved.

Once the gauge has risen all the way, I time the cooking. My book says beets will take 20 minutes from this point.

I remain in the kitchen, adjusting the heat from time to time to keep the pressure steady. After 20 minutes, I release the heat from the lid by pressing down on the gauge button. I open the lid and presto!

They’re gorgeous. Perfectly cooked beets. No loss of life or limb. This is all very promising.

Day 2

Now that I have survived the beets, I decide I need a bigger challenge. I pull Julia Child’s famous “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” from my bookshelf.

I decide that I can adapt Julia’s legendary Boeuf Bourguignon in the pressure cooker, which is reputed to be awesome for stews and braises.

Liquids do not evaporate in the pressure cooker and flavors are intensified, so the wine and stock can be cut way down and the herbs reduced slightly and the sauce remains intense. The biggest change: Instead of braising for 3 hours, I cook under high pressure for a mere 16 minutes.

I seal the pot, watch nervously as the pot comes to high pressure, quaff some of that wine, calm down, and wait 16 minutes.

I use a wooden spoon to release the steam from the pot before opening the lid. (Later, I learn this is a blunder. A braised meat dish should have the pressure released gently, so it will not boil and become stringy. I should have simply let it sit with the heat off until the pressure gauge went down.)

Pressure can be released through three methods. One is pressing down on the gauge, which causes steam to shoot out for about 30 seconds. Another is to let the pot cool down naturally by simply turning the heat off. A third method involves running cold water over the sealed pot.

Et voila! (Why does this make me so ridiculously happy?) In spite of my mistake with the pressure release, the dish tastes delicious.

As my family takes a gustatory journey to Julia Child’s Paris, I annoy everyone by crowing over how easy it was and exclaiming over how ultra-tender the beef is.

Next time, I’ll use less stock than Julia’s recipe calls for; another benefit of the pressure cooker is that you need only minimal liquid. Sauces stay thicker and more flavorful.

An adaptation of Julia Child’s famous Boeuf Bourguignon, cooked in 16 minutes, instead of 3 hours.

Days 3 through 15

Over the next two weeks, I use my now-beloved pressure cooker for everything from brown rice (20 minutes to perfection!), artichokes (11 minutes!), Cuban-style pork, yucca root, carrots, collard greens, cauliflower, and just about everything else I can get my hands on.

One night I go crazy and start throwing everything in my refrigerator into the pot. Zucchini, onions, chicken, tomatoes, hmm, how long have these herbs been in the fridge?

The result: A mess. Poulet avec Vegetables à la Mush.

When good pressure cooking goes bad. I created an unsightly mish-mash by throwing delicate vegetables such as zucchini and tomatoes in with heartier ones like cauliflower. Whoops.

It’s terrible.

I realize when you use a pressure cooker, you really have to understand how long each ingredients can tolerate the extremely hot, high-pressure environment inside the pot. Chopped tomatoes and zucchini, it turns out, can handle but a few minutes. I’ve become cocky. I need to calm down.

Current Day

The pressure cooker is now a bona fide stress-reducing, super-useful piece of kitchen equipment for me. I’ve backed off the pressure cooker for delicate vegetables like broccoli, zucchini, asparagus and tomatoes, because it is a poor tool for items that need very precise cooking. But I now use the pressure cooker whenever I make brown rice, artichokes, corn, potatoes and beans. I am constantly testing ways I can use it to speed up dinner and improve our weekly fare.

What do you say, Juggle Readers? Is anyone a Pressure Cooker devotee? Will you share your best tips, tricks and recipes? Anyone too nervous to try one, or scarred by overcooked vegetables or exploding pot memories?

Comments (5 of 22)

I use pressure cookers; love them and own three. Looking at the images of the Boston marathon bombers, I cannot believe those backpacks have pressure cookers inside. And loaded with the weight if pieces of metal... Packs do not appear to heavy enough, nor are they shaped they way you would expect. What do other pressure cooker fans think?

4:02 pm February 5, 2013

maddy wrote :

I have several crock pots, different sizes, my son LOVES any variety of stew I make in there. He literally almost jumps for joy....so I may have to invest in one of these pressure cookers, it will give me so much more flexibility to produce the same kind of results when I can't quite get dinner in the crock before heading to work in the morning. My grandmother once warned me against these many years ago...but somehow I am sure the safety features have improved.

1:37 pm February 5, 2013

Dick wrote :

My wife and I made the Julia Childs Boeuf Bourgignon Sunday using our Cusinart electric pressure cooker. It was delicious and one of our guests wrote this little corny ditty in his "thank you" email. The seving bowl is a talavera ceramic and the chuck roast chunks were boneless.

Ode to Dick’s Beef Burgandy

Life is filled with Joy and much to see

Theres the fleur de lis, the Lourve, and
gay Paree…

But of all the sights that one can see

There’s none quite like Dick’s Beef Burgandy!

Piled high in bowl often made stone

With wife Bonnie or often alone,

Dick gently releases the meat from the bone.

The meat is simmered to perfection,

To the cabinet for his selection,

A hardy red for this confection.

Oh fly, and be fleet of hoof my bovine friends,

For once the recipe for Dick’s Beef Burgandy someone sends,

Your days at pasture will meet their ends.

11:48 am February 1, 2013

Alex wrote :

I have used a pressure cooker for 40 some years and love it! It is wonderful for cooking venison and pheasant. So tender with this method. I always start by chicken soup in the pressure cooker with chicken, onions and a whole carrot and a stalk of celery for 15 min. Then I cool it down under cold water and then strain out the fall apart chicken and simmer diced carrots and celery till tender without the pressure. Same pan. Delicious. That comment about it taking a half hour to cool down seems incorrect. I've never seen it take more than 10 minutes to cool down naturally.

10:05 pm January 31, 2013

Susan Waters wrote :

I just passed a tip on to my son in TX, Grandma used to cook boiled peanuts in her pressure cooker. He was stoked. Quick and flavorful for southern aficiados of the peanut,

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